Posted On: January 13, 2020

Journalism Job

Media Organization: Reasons to be Cheerful

Company Description

Reasons to be Cheerful is a non-profit editorial project that is tonic for tumultuous times.

We tell stories that reveal that there are, in fact, a surprising number of reasons to feel cheerful. Many of these reasons come in the form of smart, proven, replicable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. We’re here to tell you about some of them. Through sharp reporting, our stories balance a sense of healthy optimism with journalistic rigor, and find cause for hope. We are part magazine, part therapy session, part blueprint for a better world.

Reasons to be Cheerful was founded by artist and musician David Byrne, who believes in the power of approaching the world with curiosity — in art, in music, in collaboration and in life. Under the banner of Byrne’s Arbutus Foundation, Reasons to be Cheerful embodies this sensibility, applying it now to the future of our world. Through stories of hope, rooted in evidence, Reasons to be Cheerful aims to inspire us all to be curious about how the world can be better, and to ask ourselves how we can be part of that change.

Job Description

Social media manger for non-profit online magazine Reasons to be Cheerful
Position: Part time, 2-3 days per week
Location: New York City, NY

Reasons to be Cheerful is hiring a social media manager to grow our audience, further develop an authentic digital presence and bring together a highly engaged online community around our growing publication.

Re-launched in August, 2019, Reasons to be Cheerful is a new but well-established voice in the world of solutions journalism. Our reporting focuses on learning from initiatives and ideas that are succeeding in bringing about positive, measurable change in the world. Like our reporting, it is important that our social media authentically balances a sense of optimism with seriousness and rigor. Our social media should capture the sensibility of the project so that it feels like a natural extension of it — not just promoting our work, but enhancing it.

Because Reasons to be Cheerful falls under the umbrella of the Arbutus Foundation, a unique non-profit founded by artist and musician David Byrne, the social media manager should have a keen understanding of where the audiences of Arbutus’s various projects overlap with ours and where they do not. Our hope is for Reasons to be Cheerful to capture natural audience overlap while retaining an autonomous, authentic voice of its own.

Candidates should be enthusiastic about establishing strong, wide-reaching audience and bringing together a community of people who share a desire for change, and who see the value in focusing energy on the positive and doable. An ideal candidate will demonstrate experience and capability in developing a sophisticated social media strategy that blends audience growth, content promotion, brand development and community building. A journalistic mindset is a must.

The ideal candidate will:
• Be able to work independently and also collaborate as an equal with the editorial team.
• Demonstrate experience in building and cultivating a social media following starting from a small baseline, and expanding that following quickly and steadily.
• Be able to design a sophisticated social media strategy that will generate sustainable short- and long-term growth, with an eye toward attracting followers that might not otherwise know about our work.
• Be adept at acquiring and editing high-quality images, gifs and video to create vibrant, eye-catching social media content.
• Have strong writing skills and an engaging voice, but also be able calibrate their writing style to reflect our tone.
• Know the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation, and be able to apply those rules reliably.
• Know how to analyse traffic stats and other analytics, and use that data to continuously modify and improve the social media strategy and our day-to-day social media decision-making.
• Be enthusiastic about working closely with a creative team to contribute original ideas, and develop and discuss those and other ideas collaboratively.
• Be able to develop unique live social media events that engage our audience.
• Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of marketing and brand development in the context of social media and journalism.
• Have a minimum of 2-3 years experience working in social media management, ideally in the realm of journalism.

Qualified candidates may have the opportunity to work on other Arbutus Foundation or Todomundo projects.

 

To Apply

Please send a resume, cover letter and portfolio demonstrating social media experience and ability to info@reasonstobecheerful.world by January 24, 2020.